At a Glance
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation outgrew its previous registration solution and began partnering with SportsEngine to serve its 900 athletes across 36 teams. SVSEF uses SportsEngine HQ to simplify registration and payment, streamlining reporting for its two-person administrative staff.
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Challenge: Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation searched for a solution that could help simplify a complicated registration processes and inflexible payment options. |
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Solution: By leveraging SportsEngine HQ's registration, member management, and reporting tools, SVSEF improved payment options, offered a seamless registration experience, and could efficiently distribute scholarships. |
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Results: Admin teams, coaches, and parents benefited from easy access to reports, a 55% year-over-year increase in opening day registrations, and flexible payment options. |
Intro:
The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) is a non-profit focused on providing exceptional snowsports programs for the youth of Wood River Valley, Idaho. It serves over 900 athletes and has had 25 Olympians go through its programs.
Challenge:
SVSEF seeks alternatives due to limited payment options, customer service, and reporting
With a small administrative staff of just two people, SVSEF always looks for ways to streamline its processes and lighten the burden on the admin team. For several years, it had used a platform specifically designed for ski clubs to help parents register athletes more easily.
“We needed more support, and we just weren’t getting that on the backend,” explained Mimi Crocker, Business Administrator and Director for SVSEF. “We’d have to wait days sometimes to get answers to our questions, and that just didn’t really work for us.”
Besides more responsive customer support, SVSEF was looking for a partner that could provide various payment plans and more options for parents. As a non-profit, SVSEF provides over $500,000 in scholarships annually, and it needed an efficient way to distribute those awards so parents could access them during the registration process. It also needed to easily access a variety of reports for admin, accounting, and coaching purposes.
SVSEF was already familiar with SportsEngine through a partner organization, Rotarun, a small ski area SVSEF uses for training. Rotarun started using SportsEngine in 2017 for background screening and abuse prevention training for coaches. “That functionality was amazing, super easy to use,” said Crocker. As SVSEF’s services and number of athletes continued expanding, it outgrew the existing platform’s capabilities, so Crocker reached out to SportsEngine to see if it could meet SVSEF’s needs as well.
“As a non-profit, we put our resources towards programming and the kids. SportsEngine provides a huge efficiency gain, which is really key to our organization. Its ease of use for parents allows us to be there for them and for our coaches.” - Mimi Crocker, Business and Administration Director
Solution:
SportsEngine stands out with exceptional customer service and all-in-one solution
From the beginning, SportsEngine set itself apart from its competitors with its willingness to provide incredible customer service and meet SVSEF’s needs. The support provided by SportsEngine’s sales team and the implementation team gave Crocker the confidence that the customer service would be there to bolster them throughout the relationship.
“It’s been 180 degrees different from the previous platform,” she said. “Our project manager took the time to learn about our organization and our needs, and was really able to guide us in the right direction. The implementation process went so smoothly, it was amazing.”
After learning about SVSEF’s needs and goals, its project manager guided them to SportsEngine HQ as the best solution for its needs. SVSEF uses HQ to simplify registration for its teams, classes, and other programs it offers. From the first day registration was open, Crocker was impressed by the amount of time SportsEngine saved the administrative staff.
“I’m not tech savvy, so I was concerned about my ability to build registrations and use all the features,” said Crocker. “But once I got a little training, I realized how truly simple it is to use. The whole platform is built with the user in mind.”
“We are thrilled with the new SportsEngine platform and how seamless the rollout was for families. I am confident that we made a good decision in partnering with SportsEngine.” - Mimi Crocker, Business and Administration Director
Conclusion:
Implementing SportsEngine HQ leads to improved customer service and 55% registration increase
On registration opening day with a new platform, Crocker and the other team administrator braced for a busy day of answering phone calls. But those phone calls never came.
“We received two phone calls the entire day,” said Crocker. Not only that, but student registration numbers were up 55% over last year’s opening day, and SVSEF generated over $393,000 in registration fees in a single day.
“We high-fived at the end of the day and attributed all of this to SportsEngine’s ease of use,” said Crocker.
Parents could easily navigate the platform and register for teams and classes. And student athletes who were eligible for scholarships and discounts could enter unique codes and receive their discounts immediately. All of this resulted in a faster, easier registration process for both parents and the administration staff of SVSEF. When the day was over, Crocker and her team could access reports and see exactly where they stood, simplifying budgeting and planning for the year.
SVSEF plans on implementing even more of SportsEngine’s solutions
Now, SportsEngine HQ is integrated into everything SVSEF does. All team communication, registration, season management, and reporting functionalities are available on a single platform. SVSEF also uses HQ to manage logistics for team travel competitions.
And when she gets the opportunity, Crocker tells every ski club she knows about SportsEngine. “SVSEF gets inquiries from other ski clubs across the country asking what registration and team management platforms we use,” she said. “Without hesitation, I will recommend to the club admins that they consider SportsEngine because of the features it provides: the reporting, the ease of registration, the payment plans, and the support at implementation.”
SVSEF’s future plans include implementing SportsEngine Play to begin offering livestream, on-demand, and highlight reel options to its athletes and parents.